Anyway, Goatboy does know the answer, and he is right. There's no way to tell if the computer is on. It could be turned off, but be behind a router which is on, and might respond to pings. Or, it could be configured to simply drop all connections, thereby not replying to your pings.

So, calling and asking, and a road trip, are your only real 100% foolproof options.

It's not who votes that counts, it's who counts the votesinsomaniacal.blog.com

Jood wrote:Lies. You could also check activity of someone on msn/facebook/whatever. Just wondering if there would be any way other way to check without 3rd party stuff.

If you know all the answers already, then why the fuck would you bother posting? I already told you, and my answer was confirmed by another mod. You asked if there is any definitive way to tell if a computer is on with just an IP address, and I said no. Using MSN or Facebook does not involve an IP, so they are out of the question. Ergo you are retarded and should stop acting like we owe you anything. kthxbai.

Might help to read the question more careful: "is there any way of checking whether a computer outside my network is on?". I will kick it in for you: "No" is in no way the right answer to that question.